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Archival description
British Columbia. Forest Branch Forests and forestry--British Columbia
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Registers of timber leases and royalties

  • GR-1184
  • Series
  • 1872-1913

This series contains registers of timber leases and royalties (7 vols.). The series also consists of registers of leaseholds and licences maintained by the Lands and Works Dept., Victoria and the Timber Inspector, Vancouver; journals of timber lease payments in arrears (1891-1910), and a ledger of timber royalty payments (1908-1913). Volume 7 is oversize.

British Columbia. Office of the Provincial Timber Inspector

Special Timber Licenses

  • GR-0342
  • Series
  • 1884-1920

This series consists of 117 volumes of special timber licences from 1884-1920. The series also includes one receipt book for the renewal of special timber licences in 1910.

British Columbia. Forest Branch

Forest Service photographs

  • GR-3426
  • Series
  • 1911-1979

The series consists of photographic negatives, prints, and transparencies created by the Ministry of Forests and its predecessors including the Forest Service and Forest Branch. Series documents forest service personnel and activities relating to forest planning, protection and inventory; engineering; rangelands management and use; recreation resource management and use; research; and timber harvesting. Subjects often relate to specific forest districts, and include trees and other botanical specimens (specific species and their characteristics), stands and forests, aircraft and watercraft, buildings and facilities (such as mills, nurseries and laboratories), employees, equipment and tools, experimental projects, forest fires and fire control, geographic features (such as mountains and rivers), logging practices, pests and diseases, railways and roads, tree planting, wildlife, and vehicles.

The photographs are arranged numerically by FS file numbers FS00001 - FS25983. The photo prints are mounted on cards which contain the title, the Oxford Forest classification number, the Forest Service photo number, the photographer's name and the date the photo was taken. Not every negative was printed. The photographer might take between one and six photographs within a file and either some or none of the negatives were printed and mounted on cards.
The negatives are arranged numerically by FS file number. The negatives from number FS10509 onwards have been removed from the original glassine negative sleeves. These sleeves often have notes written on them and have been preserved as part of the series.

British Columbia. Forest Service

Report on the timber conditions in the Peace River Division

  • GR-1215
  • Series
  • 1913

This series contains a report on the timber conditions in the Peace River Division submitted to the District Forester by George Townshend, Division Ranger.

British Columbia. Fort George Forest District

Forest Service district invoices

  • GR-3181
  • Series
  • Microfilmed 1953 (originally created 1914-1952)

The series consists of invoices for building rentals, timber mark hammer purchases, and other items for forest districts handled by the central records office of the Forest Branch and later the Forest Service in Victoria. Records are arranged by forest district and then by invoice number. Invoices numbers are assigned chronologically. The records include: Kamloops (number 1 to 400, 1921-1931); Victoria (number 1 to 4400, 1914-1951); Vernon (number 1 to 155, 1921-1925); Cranbrook (number 1 to 39, 1921-1926); Nelson (number 1 to 2399, 1921-1951); Prince George (number 1 to 1300, 1921-1926); Prince Rupert (number 1 to 2800, 1918-1951), Williams Lake (number 1 to 81, 1920-1932) and Vancouver (numbers 1001 to 2000 and 4001 to 16442, 1929-1952).

British Columbia. Forest Branch

Forest Branch annual reports

  • GR-0315
  • Series
  • 1916-1930

This series consists of five volumes of annual reports of forest fires from the Forest Branch from 1916-1930. Reports record detailed information concerning location, damage, and causes of fires throughout British Columbia. Vol. 1, 1916-1918; vol. 2, 1919-1921; vol. 3, 1922-1924; vol. 4, 1925-1927; vol. 5, 1928-1930.

British Columbia. Forest Branch

Records relating to Whalen Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd.

  • GR-1397
  • Series
  • 1916-1917, 1926

This series contains records relating to Whalen Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd. Records include copies of leases and legal documents filed against the company's licences and leases, including wood pulp, booming ground, and quarry leases. Filed with the Minister of Lands.

British Columbia. Dept. of Lands

C.D. Orchard papers relating to forest administration

Papers relating to forestry and allied topics including briefs, exhibits, and notes relating to the 1943-1945 Commission on Forest Resources, 1955-1956 Commission on Forestry and material relating to the establishment of a Fraser Canyon Public Working Circle.

Presented to the BC Forest Service Museum by C.D. Orchard, 1960-1973; transferred to Project 87, 1981; received by PABC, 1982.

A finding aid is available.

Orchard, Chauncey Donald, 1893-1973

Correspondence subject indexes

  • GR-1365
  • Series
  • 1918-1983

This series contains subject indexes to the "O Series" of correspondence, ca.1918-1972 and two file directories, 1979-1981 and 1983. Box 1 contains a photocopy of an alphabetical card index to the "O series" of correspondence. Box 2 contains a file directory (updated to 1972) for "O Series" correspondence files arranged as general files, working plans, engineering, farm woodlot applications, public sustained yield units, tree farms and tree farm licences and a Forest Service file directory, 1979-1981 and a Ministry of Forests file directory, 1983. Indexes to forestry correspondence, 1918-1983

British Columbia. Ministry of Forests (1976-1986)

Chief Forester's correspondence

  • GR-1209
  • Series
  • 1919-1929

This series contains the Chief Forester's correspondence inward and outward.

British Columbia. Forest Branch

Experimental forest sample plot studies

  • GR-4060
  • Series
  • 1924-1938

This series consists of experimental forest sample plot studies created by the research division of the Forest Branch from 1924-1938. The records track the growth, inventory, availability and volume of timber in a particular area referred to as a sample plot. This includes tracking the ratio of height and width of a tree relative to its age to estimate growth rates in various types of ecosystems. The records contain descriptive information of the plot’s soil, topography, ground cover, previous logging, location and vegetation.

One study from 1924-1930 referred to as project number 11 or ME 11 which relates to Douglas fir. The other study conducted around 1938 relates to red alder trees. Plots were located around Vancouver Island, the lower mainland, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and other areas of the south coast. Records include statistics, tables, graphs and field notes.

British Columbia. Forest Branch

Research Division reports and other material

  • GR-1230
  • Series
  • 1929

This series contains an outline of the work of the Research Division with reports on general reforestation investigations, studies of forest yield, work done at the Aleza Lake and Cowichan Lake Experiment Stations, as well as reports on the Experimental Forest Nursery and Green Timbers Forestry Station.

British Columbia. Forest Branch

[British Columbia Forest Branch / Forest Service collection, reel 25]

Footage. Cattle on road and in field. Shoreline of lake, showing timber and burned areas. River boat on fast river and rapids. Landing boat and making campfire. Green Timbers Nursery. Caring for seed beds. Superintendent Tom Wells. Transplant beds. Lifting seedlings. Heeled-in seedling. Packing seedlings. Parade.

[British Columbia Forest Branch / Forest Service collection, reel 26]

Footage. Abandoned mill or smelter at Kootenay Bay on east side of Kootenay Lake. Loading car with emergency fire fighting pack. Car delivers man to woods to fight a fire. Ranger Station. Scenery [Kootenay Lake?]. Man sets up portable radio. Shots of E.C. Manning, K.C. McCannel, and A. Wells Gray. Transporting poles by railroad car and skidding them with a horse.

[British Columbia Forest Branch / Forest Service collection, reel 60]

Footage. Portable radio. Men pack up after lunch, take riverboat down rapids. Mount Robson. Loading hewn railroad ties. Lookout tower. Men land boat on river bank and extinguish abandoned fire with backpack pumps. Road through big timber [Cathedral Grove?]. Coast hand-logger towing logs with rowboat. 200-year-old stump. Hand-logger working jack. Hand-logger's floating camp, with cabin, rowboat, and log boom.

[British Columbia Forest Branch / Forest Service collection, reel 68]

Footage. 1. Alternative Service Workers at Green Timbers are shown washing up after a fire, in shack camp, assembling for a meal, and collecting their pay. 2. Sequence on small and portable mills: mill burner; hog fuel; waste; portable mill at work; slab pile; caterpillar tractor and logs; power saw with log carriage.

Charles and Diana Marston interview

CALL NUMBER: T1861:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Charles O. Marston : the early B.C. forest branch, 1913-1916 PERIOD COVERED: 1891-1919 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1958-12-23 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Family background in New England from 1638. Marston born 1891. The Biltmore School of Forestry, North Carolina. Details about the Biltmore school. Dr. Carl A. Schenck as the head of the school. Marston moves to Oregon, 1912. Began work for CPR Lands Department in East Kootenays. Joined B.C. Forest Branch in 1913. Timber cruising. TRACK 2: Traveling by B.C. Forest Service boat on the coast. Victoria office of the Forest Branch. Field work for the Forest Branch, 1914. Clo-oose land speculation. Forest Branch work, 1913-16. Anti-American sentiment causes Marston to leave Forest Branch. Worked for CPR in East Kootenays, 1916-17. Worked for H.R. MacMillan. Worked on aeronautical spruce supply in later years of World War I. CALL NUMBER: T1861:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Charles O. Marston : a forester in B.C., 1913-1925 PERIOD COVERED: 1913-1925 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1958-12-23 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Aeroplane spruce supply during World War I. Worked for Canadian Puget Sound Lumber and Timber Co. after World War I, 1919-25. Was an officer of the One Big Union, 1919. Was a logger at Alice Arm. Logging accidents and deaths. OBU organization on northern Vancouver Island. Improvements in working conditions. Traveling the coast on the Union Steamship Co. Mrs. Marston: Worked as an assistant to her husband during WW I; description of native peoples' way of life on west coast of Vancouver Island. TRACK 2: Potlatches briefly described. Crabs and what meat consumed. (End of interview)

Robert E. (Bob) Allen interview

CALL NUMBER: T1866:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Robert E. Allen : the West Kootenays in the 1890s PERIOD COVERED: 1877-1896 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1959-10-24 & 25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Born in Nevada in 1877. To Spokane in 1880. Father a homesteader in Washington and later in the mining industry in Idaho. Family to the Slocan region in 1892. Trip from Kellogg, Idaho, to Nakusp, New Denver, Three Forks and Sandon. Hauling ore by pack trains. Jobs in the Sandon-New Denver area. Camp conditions. Helped father with mail contract, 1893. TRACK 2: Traveling in the West Kootenay region: Rossland, Nelson and the Slocan Valley. Adventures on a trip from Nelson to Three Forks via Kaslo. Allen has mail contract from Nakusp to the Slocan mines, 1893. Became packer for the mines. Allen in the transportation business in Sandon and Slocan City. CALL NUMBER: T1866:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Robert E. Allen : the B.C. Forest Branch, 1912-1917 PERIOD COVERED: 1896-1917 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1959-10-24 & 25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Sold out in Slocan City in 1906. Married in 1897. Story of his marriage and honeymoon. Lived in Slocan City, 1896-1910. Became a bush foreman, 1906. Sawmills in the West Kootenays. Flood on Arrow Lakes in 1907. Woods and packing jobs. Became road foreman in 1908 at Slocan City and Burton. Incident when Allen fired Sid Leary who was later Minister of Public Works for not working hard enough on road construction. TRACK 2: Political patronage in Public Works road crews. Allen got a job as a fire warden through the influence of William Hunter a Conservative back-bencher, 1911. Becomes divisional fire warden at Revelstoke in 1912. Traveling around his division. R.E. Benedict and John Lafon brought in from U.S. Forest Service to organize new B.C. Forest Branch, 1912. Allen becomes District Forester in Hazelton, 1913. Becomes head of amalgamated Prince Rupert Forest District, 1917. Staff in the Hazelton Forest District. CALL NUMBER: T1866:0003 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Robert E. Allen : District Forester and mill operator, 1913-1926 PERIOD COVERED: 1913-1926 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1959-10-24 & 25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: The Hazelton Forest District, 1913-17. Forest Rangers. Repetition of some earlier material about the Slocan mines. Becomes District Forester in Prince Rupert in 1917. Stories about M.A. Grainger, the second Chief Forester. Anecdote about Grainger's flat feet and his moccasins. Mrs. Grainger. Quit Forest Branch to go into sawmill business, 1919. TRACK 2: Anecdotes about Forest Branch personnel. In sawmill business, 1919-26. Hanall mill described. Working conditions in Hanall. Buys into a mill at Vanarsdol in 1925. Sawmills along the CNR line. The production of railway ties. CALL NUMBER: T1866:0004 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Robert E. Allen : the B.C. Forest Branch, 1913-1945 PERIOD COVERED: 1920-1945 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1959-10-24 & 25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Tie production along the Skeena section of the CNR. Rejoined B.C. Forest Branch in 1926 as District Forester at Prince Rupert. Allen investigated after the change of government in 1928 but not fired. Allen non-political while employed by B.C.F.S. District Forester in Prince Rupert, 1926-30. Procedures for timber sales. Became District Forester at Kamloops, 1930-32. Became District Forester in Nelson, 1932. Squabbles over Forest Branch vehicles. TRACK 2: Allen was District Forester in Nelson, 1932-45. Retired in 1945. Staff of the Nelson Forest District. Staff. Fire a major problem in Nelson District. Dispute over who would be District Forester in Kamloops, 1940. Auction bidding for timber. Forest fires in the Nelson District. Expresses satisfaction with his Forest Branch career. Salaries for District Foresters. (End of interview)

Reginald V. Stuart interview

CALL NUMBER: T1871:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Reginald V. Stuart : the B.C. Forest Branch, 1914-1927 (part 1) PERIOD COVERED: 1910-1927 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1960-01-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Arrived in Vancouver in 1910 from Golden. Worked for Robert Filberg at Golden, 1919. Description of Vancouver in 1910. Clearing land in Vancouver. Stuart's early work history. Went to work at Powell River in 1911. Stuart enumerates the major logging companies on the South Coast and on Vancouver Island. Logging methods and technology in 1911. Wages and working conditions. Woods jobs. Stuart's work as accountant and scaler. TRACK 2: Forestry officials prior to the formation of the B.C. Forest Branch. Logging methods. The establishment of the B.C. Forest Branch under H.R. MacMillan in 1912. Stuart joined Forest Branch in 1914. Attempted political interference with the operation of the Forest Branch. Resistance to the ideas of forest management. Stuart's territory as a ranger. CALL NUMBER: T1871:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Reginald V. Stuart : the B.C. Forest Branch, 1914-1927 (part 2) PERIOD COVERED: 1914-1940 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1960-01-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Anecdotes about Stuart's days as a ranger along the lower coast. Story of the resale of Hastings sawmill timber lease. Economic factors in the development of the forest industry. The low price of timber. Stuart worked for the Forest Branch, 1914-27. Reminiscences of the Chief Foresters: H.R. MacMillan, Martin Grainger, P.Z. Caverhill. TRACK 2: More on the career of M.A. Grainger. Comments on P.Z. Caverhill, Chief Forester in 1920s and 1930s. Stuart becomes manager of the Loggers Association, 1927. Public relations problems of the Forest Branch, 1920s. The first use of aircraft by the Forest Branch, 1917. Early air crashes near Vancouver. The first use of radios by the Forest Branch, 1920. Favourable comments on T.D. Pattullo. (End of interview)

Charles R. Mills interview

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Charles R. Mills : the B.C. Forest Branch, 1915-1917 PERIOD COVERED: 1910-1917 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1960-10-25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Worked on forestry data collection in the Dominion Railway Belt in B.C., 1913-14. Graduated in forestry from University of Toronto and joined B.C. Forest Branch, 1915. The Forest Branch office in Tete Jaune Cache, 1915. The story of starvation flats. More on the Forest Branch facilities in Tete Jaune. Mills was District Forester in Kamloops, 1917. Forest rangers in the Kamloops forest district. The work of the district forester. Forest fire protection. Fire fighting pumps. Left B.C. Forest Branch in 1917. The history of Tete Jaune. TRACK 2: Forest surveys in the Dominion Railway Belt;, 1910-14. Some personnel of the Dominion Forest Service, 1910-14. Members of Mills graduating class, 1915. Dean B.E. Fernow and the staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Forestry. Mills current (1960) manager of the Ontario Forest Industries Association. Conditions in logging camps, 1912. (End of interview)

J.M. Gibson interview

CALL NUMBER: T1875:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Dr. J.M. Gibson : the B.C. Forest Branch, 1920-1927 PERIOD COVERED: 1920-1927 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1960-10-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Dr. J.M. Gibson joined the B.C. Forest Branch, 1920. Gibson works for the Nelson Forest District. Rangers in the Nelson District. Getting around the Nelson District. Problems of fighting forest fires. Preliminary cruising in the West Kootenay region. Moved to East Kootenay region, 1921. Rangers in the East Kootenay area. Timber cruising. TRACK 2: Sawmilling operations in the East Kootenays, 1921. Cruising in the extreme southeast. Building timber flumes. Tenure of various timber lands in the East Kootenay area. Gibson becomes District Forester in Prince George, 1923. Rangers and mills in the central Interior region, 1925. CALL NUMBER: T1875:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Dr. J.M. Gibson : the B.C. Forest Branch, 1920-1929 PERIOD COVERED: 1920-1929 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1960-10-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Continuation of a discussion of the sawmills in the central Interior region, 1925. Comments on union organization in the Cranbrook area. More on sawmills in the central Interior area, especially east of Prince George. Detailed discussion of the Winton interests in the sawmill at Giscome. More on the mills east of Prince George. Problems of a District Forester: forest fires and collecting stumpage and royalty. Small water-powered sawmill operating at Fort St. James, 1924. TRACK 2: Story of Sir John Pitca, a knighted Estonian who settled near Fort St. James. Gibson becomes Assistant Forester in charge of forest protection, 1927-29. Returned to New Brunswick to teach at UNB in 1929. (End of interview)

Leonard R. Andrews interview

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Leonard R. Andrews : the B.C. Forest Branch and the BCLMA, 1912-1960 PERIOD COVERED: 1912-1960 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1961-02-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Hired by H.R. MacMillan to work for the B.C. Forest Branch, 1912. U.S. advisors to the Forest Branch: Overton Price, John Lafon, R.E. Benedict. Andrews appointed District Forester in Vernon, 1913. The job of District Forester. Appointing fire wardens. H.R. MacMillan as Chief Forester. Fought in WW I. Returned to Forest Branch in 1918. Andrews becomes District Forester in Vancouver, 1920-25. Andrews was secretary-manager of the B.C. Loggers Association, 1925-27. Went to Bloedel Stewart and Welch at Menzies Bay, 1927. TRACK 2: The BSW camp at Menzies Bay. Andrews ill with TB, 1928. Joined B.C. Lumber Manufacturers Association, 1929. International trade arrangements for lumber. Andrews a member of the trade delegations in the 1930s. During WW II worked for federal Timber Comptroller, 1939-42. Was BCLMA representative in Ottawa, 1942-45. Then became secretary-manager of the BCLMA. Description of Bloedel Stewart and Welch camps, Menzies Bay logging operation, ca. 1927. Details on bunkhouses. Rates of pay. Working conditions. Logging methods. Forest Service personnel. Details on the career of H.R. MacMillan, ca. 1915-19. (End of interview)

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